


Touch

by middnighter



Series: tumblr prompts [1]
Category: DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 04:29:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13287015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middnighter/pseuds/middnighter
Summary: Jason didn’t like being touched. Being hugged, patted on the shoulder, playfully hit on the arm, just wasn’t his thing. It wasn’t news to anyone who knew him before his death, and it only got stronger after he came back.





	Touch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lavender_Gooms](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavender_Gooms/gifts).



> This was prompted to me on my [tumblr](https://translanterncorps.tumblr.com)

Jason didn’t like being touched. Being hugged, patted on the shoulder, playfully hit on the arm, just wasn’t his thing. It wasn’t news to anyone who knew him before his death, and it only got stronger after he came back.

Jason’s soulmark was around his shoulders. That would be the spot where his soulmate would first touch him. That was another reason why he was very careful of who hugged him. When he was a kid he loved looking at it, twisting around in front of the mirror, making out the shape of a handprint in the middle of his back, a few touches of black up his neck where the fingers of his soulmate would linger. The Joker had found it hilarious to hit all of those spots with the crowbar.

Jason didn’t like being touched. Very few people could get away with it. So of course, Roy Harper decided he was going to be one of them.

His friendship with Roy wasn’t anything he had expected to happen. The guy had bulldozered his way through Jason’s carefully-build walls, and Jason did nothing to prevent them from crumbling down. Roy just wouldn’t take no for an answer, and before he realized it Jason had won a best friend, someone with whom he could talk about things he never mentioned to anyone else, or just stay silent and enjoy the night, a beer in his hand and soda in Roy’s.

So Roy knew how he felt about touching. But he never pressured him into it, and Jason appreciated that. Sometimes Roy opened his arms, their insides dark with his soulmark, or held his hand out for Jason, and Jason just tiled his head and waved him off. Roy never took offense. He always had a look in his eyes, a grin on his face, that said _it’s okay, maybe next time_. Roy knew that it was something to be earned, and he was well on his way to get it.

And one day, Jason found himself not minding anymore. This time, when Roy opened his hand, Jason didn’t close his. Jason expected a handshake, a shoulder bump, a pat on the back maybe, but he didn’t expect for Roy to get closer and actually wrap his arms around his shoulders. But then Roy was good at doing the unexpected.

It was nice, feeling his hand in the middle of his back, his fingers lingering on his neck, and _wait a minut_ _e_ —

“It’s you,” Roy said, looking at the spots on Jason’s neck, then at his black fingertips and forearms, then at Jason’s neck again. “I can’t believe it’s you! You’re my soulmate!”

Jason couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen it coming, but looking back at everything, it should have been obvious. “Not too disappointed it’s not a supermodel?” he teased, the corner of his mouth twisted up.

“Out of all people, Jaybird,” Roy said, his hand warm on Jason’s shoulder, “I’m damn glad it’s you.”


End file.
